Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Monster Summoning for Book of Spells

For the forthcoming Book of Spells, Supplement I for Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, I thought it would be fun to add a little color and detail to the Monster Summoning spells, as well as to add two lower-powered variations for use as 1st and 2nd level spells.In my experience, people either love or hate the Monster Summoning spells. We love them because summoning monsters to do one's bidding is fun. We hate them because it may seem that the monsters that one gets are not very powerful relative to other spells at that level. I actually think the set is underrated, though some of it obviously depends on the situation and what one gets. But the least I could do was to give them a bit more flavor. What actually appears is, of course, random.For good measure, I also fleshed out the Divine Aid spell for Zylarthen's Evil High Priests and High Priests (see end). In that case, the Priest gets to choose the monster (if he has a choice).Monster Summoning I-IX:

Well, it's the same spell. It just explicitly lists the monster possibilities. I think it's more fun than the "1-3 creatures of Level 2 appear" of the earlier version. And hopefully it adds a bit of suspense - "please, don't let me get Rust Monster."

I always thought it would be interesting if a magic-user had one particular monster it summoned. For example let's say you had the spell for dogs. You would still roll on the usual table. If you got giant lizards, they would be giant dogs with the stats of giant lizards. If you got bandits, they would be dog-headed bandits. If you got troglodytes, they would be stinky dog men. etc. I think I'll play it like this actually.